The Worst of Road Signs

[codyg1985]

There are some signs in NW Alabama that say "Watch for Water on Roadway." I think "Road Subject to Flooding/Ponding" would make more sense.

[hbelkins]

There are some signs in NW Alabama that say "Watch for Water on Roadway." I think "Road Subject to Flooding/Ponding" would make more sense.

Kentucky uses "High Water Possible" for places that are prone to flooding, and "Water Possible in Road" in places where there may be standing water during rain due to poor drainage.

[Takumi]

A standard "Thru Trucks Prohibited" sign would have worked better. This doesn't even make sense because this is a dead-end street!


Both the lack of space and the three different fonts on this sign make it hideous.


This looks like the love child of a VA primary shield and a TN primary shield.


These are just plain ugly. I think/hope they've been replaced.


This is, by far, the worst attempt at a VA primary shield ever.


The US 460 shield looks like it was squished from a normal shield into its current dimensions. The I-295 looks a little off as well. This is at a truck stop so it may have been a contractor's doing.


Route 3....6


Ugly font, but this has a particularly gruesome story to go along with it. The owner of the yard this assembly is in was out in his yard when I took this picture. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but he got in his truck and chased me down, demanding to know what I was doing taking pictures of his house. I explained what I did and he said "Well, you just scared me!" and left.


Same font as the shield in the previous picture, but on a speed limit sign, which makes it 10 times uglier.

[Ian]

A standard "Thru Trucks Prohibited" sign would have worked better. This doesn't even make sense because this is a dead-end street!

Is that font italicized?? That's a first for me!

<VA 136 shield>

I actually like this, as it shows off some age.

Some from this past Saturday. At the entrance to the Washington Crossing Bridge:


Off looking Clearview street blade sign in New Hope. While the sign leaves something to be desired, I dig the European look to the traffic signals:

[twinsfan87]

Here's one I came across while at work in Champlin, MN. It's located at the end of a remote-ish cul-de-sac, and no one would ever see it unless they stumbled upon it.  

[NE2]

I'm noticing Broward is finally recognizing county routes (or at least, that they aren't completely state-maintained); those pentagon shields used to be nearly impossible to find until around 2008 or so.

Is it Broward or FDOT that's recognizing them? (In other words, are there any signs not posted on state roads?)

[formulanone]

Is it Broward or FDOT that's recognizing them? (In other words, are there any signs not posted on state roads?)

I think...by checking an old Delorme atlas from 1995, that by still calling some segments SSR's (secondary State Roads), they fell back to county maintenance due to Florida's strict mileage cap. So that might have been many years ago. I can't say I've seen a single pentagon used as reassurance marker in the county, but in most cases, none of these "fake" state road segments were ever signed with reassurance markers, anyhow. The only oddball examples would be roads that linked to the Sawgrass Expressway or I-75 (SRs 834, 817, 814; for example) which had the (in-)appropriate state road shields on the exit BGS.


SR and CR 814 signs by formulanone at Flickr

But since every example I've seen in Broward seems to be a replacement of a state road shield, they're probably informing motorists that "...this section of road isn't state-maintained...". Not that it seems to make much difference in quality, since they appear of nearly the same standards, but it's likely more confusing to visitors than anything else.

[NE2]

But since every example I've seen in Broward seems to be a replacement of a state road shield

How about University (SR 817) at Sheridan (CR 822)? Do you know if these were initially erroneous SR 822 shields?

[formulanone]

How about University (SR 817) at Sheridan (CR 822)? Do you know if these were initially erroneous SR 822 shields?

Years ago, they used to say "SR xxx", but that's changed recently. Not sure who's idea it was.

[agentsteel53]

But since every example I've seen in Broward seems to be a replacement of a state road shield, they're probably informing motorists that "...this section of road isn't state-maintained...". Not that it seems to make much difference in quality, since they appear of nearly the same standards, but it's likely more confusing to visitors than anything else.

I'm not really sure what the nature is of DOT obsession with state vs. county maintenance.  the average driver just cares if a road is of good quality or not. 

[hbelkins]

I'm not really sure what the nature is of DOT obsession with state vs. county maintenance.  the average driver just cares if a road is of good quality or not. 

• In a lot of places,, maintenance quality varies greatly. State roads may be good while county roads may suck. Or state roads may suck but coutny roads suck worse. Also, the alignment and width may also vary greatly between jurisdictions.
• So the driver will know which governmental agency to call to get a pothole fixed. We get complaints all the time about county roads, and we don't have any jurisdiction over them.

[NE2]

I'm not really sure what the nature is of DOT obsession with state vs. county maintenance.  the average driver just cares if a road is of good quality or not. 

• In a lot of places,, maintenance quality varies greatly. State roads may be good while county roads may suck. Or state roads may suck but coutny roads suck worse. Also, the alignment and width may also vary greatly between jurisdictions.
• So the driver will know which governmental agency to call to get a pothole fixed. We get complaints all the time about county roads, and we don't have any jurisdiction over them.

1. Then have minimum standards to sign something as a state road.
2. Begin/end state maintenance signs should take care of this (and are necessary anyway when you have unsigned routes).

Most New England states have no problem marking a local road as part of a state route. Even states like Florida that mostly conflate the two systems have a few exceptions (e.g. SR 527 in downtown Orlando is city-maintained).

[hbelkins]

1. Then have minimum standards to sign something as a state road.
2. Begin/end state maintenance signs should take care of this (and are necessary anyway when you have unsigned routes).

Most New England states have no problem marking a local road as part of a state route. Even states like Florida that mostly conflate the two systems have a few exceptions (e.g. SR 527 in downtown Orlando is city-maintained).

Lots of jurisdictions have maintenance agreements in place. In Kentucky, for instance, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County government maintains everything inside New Circle Road, although I believe the attempt to reroute all the numbered highways around the circle has been abandoned. And in Louisville-Jefferson County, there's an agreement to have the local government do snow removal on all routes except interstates. We even tried that in one of our counties a few years ago, with the county agreeing to do snow removal on all Priority B and C routes.

(Mods -- might be a good thread to split off. I changed the title of this post.)

[codyg1985]

To continue along the lines of jurisdictional maintenance, the city of Huntsville, AL maintains all traffic signals within the city of Huntsville, regardless of whether or not the route is a state-maintained route or not. I think this is mostly the case with larger cities in Alabama, but I am not sure.

[abc2VE]

Ive seen that speed limit strictly enforced sign myself, and also thought that it was poorly conceived; 0 tolerance, you mean No Tolerance?

Also Takumi do you have a picture of the truck restriction sign on Lynchburg AVE. with the italics. I've always thought of that as an oddity.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Colonial+Heights,+VA&hl=en&ll=37.246762,-77.409861&spn=0.009275,0.021136&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=39.371738,86.572266&vpsrc=6&hnear=Colonial+Heights,+Virginia&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=37.246741,-77.409973&panoid=qA9S34Gghwp184g1EXmIPA&cbp=12,107.27,,0,2.47

[apeman33]

The Phoenix Committee in Fort Scott, Kan. recently used some of the money it raised to hire someone to put up some fancy signposts and new signs downtown.

First, here's how they're supposed to look:


But then there's this:


So why did they half-ass the second one? Apparently because whoever is putting up the signs isn't paying attention to where they are:


Those are not the opposite corners of the same intersection. Those are two different streets a block apart. The second one should say "State St".

There is also another sign on the wrong road (It says "Oak St." when it should say "Old Fort Blvd."). And two of the ones on Main St. don't have the sign for Main.

[Takumi]

Derp (US 301 southbound at VA 139)

Also Takumi do you have a picture of the truck restriction sign on Lynchburg AVE. with the italics. I've always thought of that as an oddity.

Yes, at the other end.


For comparison, here's a standard VDOT District 4 Through Trucks Prohibited sign.

[Quillz]

The italics makes the sign much harder to read, I think.

[route56]

From the Lawrence Journal-World, December 1, 1970. I've cropped the caption so the roadgeeks can figure out the goof.

[Duke87]

I think I spot it.

(highlight below)
"Indina Ave"?

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Is there just one error, or an error for each photo?

[route56]

There's an error for each photo.

Also, Duke87 is correct on the first photo: "Indina" should be "Indian" (It forms part of the northern edge of the Haskell Indian Nations University campus)

[vtk]

Some of the recent modifications to signage (due to construction) along I-71 SB between 17th Ave and downton Columbus are pretty bad.  ODOT wants the new lane configuration downstream to be pretty obvious, but they did so by patching existing signs with messages like "Left 2 Lanes" and "Right Lane Only", rather than putting up new signs that actually point to the lanes.  Sometimes these patches are in places where a lane assignment wouldn't normally be found, or covering the entirety of otherwise unrelated signs.  And drivers still cause crashes by changing lanes at the last second.  Actually, I'm not sure if it's ODOT or Kokosing who designed the temporary signs.

Somehow I never think to have my camera out when I drive that road weekly.

See also: Columbus Crossroads, aka Crawlumbus

[Central Avenue]

I actually managed to get a few shots of those:

[elsmere241]

They just put up signs like that on the DE 141 freeway, at least a month after the lanes were shifted.